France prepares for Brexit cliff-edge

PARIS — The French government is preparing fast-track legislation to mitigate the worst consequences of a no-deal Brexit.

The measures, which could be reviewed by a Senate committee as soon as this Thursday, will be introduced using a so-called law by ordinance legislative procedure that enables measures to move to an accelerated parliamentary vote without debate.

With Brexit talks in Brussels stalled following an abortive attempt to reach a deal Sunday, and both sides underscoring their red lines, a no-deal Brexit looks more likely. EU leaders meet Wednesday for a summit which had been billed as the target date for a deal. In the event, Council President Donald Tusk offered a downbeat assessment Tuesday, saying a briefing on the talks has given him "no grounds for optimism."

Speaking to journalists ahead of a preparatory meeting in Luxembourg Tuesday, French Europe Minister Nathalie Loiseau said her country's preparations would include a range of measures to protect the rights of citizens and avoid logjams at ports.

"It means measures for our citizens who live in the U.K. but will return to France. It means measures for British citizens who are in our territory. It means obviously everything concerning the traffic under the Channel," she said. "We are working, with the object of the measures that will be taken, to put in place customs infrastructures that ensure our controls are the least penalizing possible at the entryway to the European territory."

The logjam scenario has already drawn considerable attention from French ministers. Budget Minister Gérald Darmanin, who toured the north eastern French coastline at the beginning of the month, has committed to hiring an additional 700 customs agents to ease traffic flows, which could face up to two minutes of checks per truck more than at present.

Jean-Paul Mulot, permanent representative to the U.K. of the Hauts-de-France region, said interministerial cooperation will be necessary to ensure cross-Channel flows are dealt with efficiently. For security checks in the 6-million-person jurisdiction, he anticipates a need for 250 more border agents from the interior ministry, to be topped off by 195 new customs officers from the finance ministry. Yet most of all, Mulot stressed, the agriculture ministry would need to hire and train upward of 250 sanitary agents to check animals — dead and alive — that can clog up a border crossing.

"What could block the ports is that," Mulot declared. "The trucks with food will block the other trucks."

The costs of hiring these new workers, as well as setting up customs sites and adding inspection lanes, could be as much as €35 million-40 million per year, according to a rough estimate by Mulot. Other costs could include purchasing land for new storage areas and parking lots.

On Friday, Darmanin will be returning to Hauts-de-France to explain to corporations how they can do their part to avoid post-Brexit bottlenecks. This time in Lille, France's sixth-largest city, the French budget minister will launch a campaign asking companies to prepare their personnel and paperwork to speed up border checks.

"Transporting calfs, edible fat, lettuce could all add time," a Darmanin aide acknowledged. Yet she noted that the measures could yet be averted if a Brexit deal is reached. "Everything will depend on the outcome of the negotiations."

Less than six months away from a potential divorce date on March 29, the time for preparations is shrinking. A prefabricated customs site could be deployed in two months and the necessary training for sanitary agents be given in 10 weeks, according to Mulot. That gives the government until early January to have its legislative framework in place. As of now, the bill has already been presented in a Cabinet meeting by Loiseau and Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. Parliament is set to consider it in early November.

President Emmanuel Macron has already used the fast-track protocol, which MPs must agree to, for major reforms of the French railway SNCF and national labor code.